Father recalls last message from Sgt. Nave Chabshush after Lebanon tank incident

The father of Sgt. Nave Chabshush, 20, from the settlement of Adam in the Binyamin region, spoke to Kan News on Reshet Bet after his son was named as the fourth fallen soldier from Friday’s tank incident in Lebanon. He said the family was woken in the middle of the night and has been in “an endless storm of emotions” ever since, adding, “We lost the most precious thing a family can lose.”

Haim Chabshush described Nave as “a child of light, kind, humble, and loving people,” saying he always put others before himself and “was one of those people who speak little and do a lot.” The father, who serves as a reserve deputy brigade commander, said Nave had recently finished a tank commanders’ course and wanted to continue to officers’ training, but chose first to gain more combat experience.

Chabshush said his son’s final message came 75 minutes before the incident. Nave wrote that he might be home on Sunday and asked his father not to tell his mother in case it did not work out, because “I do not want Mom to be sad.” The family waited until early morning identification, and the father said, “As he said, he is coming home today. He is not coming back as we wanted, but he is coming back.”

He also said the family’s war experience went beyond him and Nave, noting that his eldest daughter was also serving then and that both he and she were later in Gaza, where he met Nave as well. The family found notebooks in which Nave wrote about his views, including: “They say a freier is a fool because he lets others take advantage of him and does tasks alone that everyone should do, but I want to do and invest as much as possible.” His last WhatsApp status read, “Do not cry that it is over, smile because it happened,” and the father said that even from the end of 12th grade they found another line from him: “Live as if you will die tomorrow.”